I do not own Gilmore Girls.

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When Rory woke up her head was pounding. She turned around in the bed trying to discover her whereabouts. Unfortunately, she was so disoriented that she twisted her body in the tangled sheets and fell right off the bed. She landed with a thud. She rubbed her hand along the stitches on her left arm, trying to remember how she got them. When she finally did remember she grimaced. Her surroundings became much clearer, she was in her mothers room. Rory didn't want to be there, in that room, that house, the town, state, country when her mother discovered she was awake. She knew she was in for some yelling. Her behavior last night was inexcusable, this she would admit.

"You're up." It wasn't a question. Lorelai stood at the door she had been there since she heard the thud. And for some reason she got a kick out of watching clarity wash over her daughters face.

"Actually I'm down." Rory didn't know why she did that. She was starting a fight. Sure it would start out as a simple sarcasm battle but the underlying tensions would arise at the same rate as their voices.

"I can see that." Lorelai kept her distance. If drunk Rory was a horror she could only imagine what hung over Rory was like. But she wouldn't have to imagine anymore.

"You're not going to yell?" Rory asked, confused at her mothers dismissal of her comment.

"Oh I will, no worries. Mommy's going to scream. However mommy has some sympathy for you. After all, I've been hung over before." Lorelai responded.

"That's it? I thought you wouldn't care."

Lorelai frowned. She had been trying to figure out her daughter's drastic mood swings. She had been trying to explain to herself why her daughter was saying these things, after all Rory could never get away with lying, at least not with her. And when Rory was drunk the truth must have come out, maybe not delivered the most appropriate way.

"Is that what you think? That I don't care about you? That I'm leaving you for Luke? 'Cause that's not true." Lorelai asked her daughter. She hoped so much that Rory would say no. Lorelai felt horrible enough as it, what with thinking that Rory was an adult and it was time for her to live her own life and all.

"Honestly?" Rory paused, she bit her bottom lip and looked down at her lap. She looked back up with tears forming in her baby blue's. "I don't know what I'm thinking. Everything is just so confusing. It's like I can't even… I don't know."

The honesty in Rory's words struck gold. Lorelai felt sympathy for Rory. Anybody could relate to the raw confusion in Rory's words. Whether it was intentional or not is the question. Lorelai chose not to question if there was an ulterior motive concerning Rory's confession. She chose to pity the nineteen year old. However, Lorelai was very stubborn she wouldn't let Rory get away with what she did. Confused or not the girl needed to be straightened out, told that the sky was up and the ground down.

"Okay? Honey, I guess I can understand that. But what you did was wrong."

"I know." And as an after thought she added "I'm sorry."

Lorelai glared at Rory. Why the girl thought that apologizing could solve everything was beyond her. It was too naïve for her. Lorelai shook her head and turned to leave realizing that approaching the subject any more would lead to more deception from Rory. Rory would just say sorry until she was blue in the face and then would cry. There would be no head ways into solving the problem, it would just be two one sided arguments. Rory would assume Lorelai was mad at her and try to solve everything and Lorelai would try to convince Rory to confront why she was confused. They would be there all day.

"Mom? Why are you leaving?" Lorelai couldn't help but turn around and walk down the dark path Rory was leading her. The pathetic child like voice in her almost twenty year old daughter stabbed at her heart. What was making her daughter feel so little? She hoped to god it wasn't her.

"Rory, if I come in here I want you to talk to me. Tell me what is really wrong. I know and I think you know that this is not about the mugging." For some horrible reason beyond Lorelai's comprehension she felt amused when Rory's face became panic stricken and afraid. Although it was bittersweet. Something was bothering her baby girl that made her panic and too afraid to talk about. She almost didn't want to know. But she had to find out, it was the only way to help Rory. And helping Rory was what she lived for.

"I don't know." Rory answered. But it was a lie. It would have been the truth before she came to the realization in the hospital. What had happened was so horrible that Rory needed to block it out of her mind, forget it, go into denial about. But now she remembered and she wanted so bad to cry about it in her mother's arms as well as push everybody away. She didn't know what to do. It seemed that if she told her mother her previous actions would be understood and forgiven. As much as Rory wanted to avoid a fight and lecture and all other consequences her sensible conscience won out telling her she deserved whatever was coming her way. By not telling her mother she was forced to deal with it on her own and again her conscience told her that she couldn't do this alone. And then there was the fear that even her mother, her so understanding mother, wouldn't understand. So she sucked it up and lied, the best she could.

"I can't make you talk Rory. But don't lie to me." Finally the anger seeped out into her words. Lorelai felt comfortable with this emotion, although not with Rory. She was hardly ever mad at Rory.

"Fine, then I know. I just don't want to tell you." Lorelai's anger seemed to create the domino effect. Only thing was, Rory's anger wasn't justified.

"Don't you dare raise your voice with me young lady. You may be an adult but you are still my daughter, or did you think you could grow out of that like a pair of shoes? I haven't done anything wrong, Rory. I have tried so hard to help you through this, whatever the fuck this is. So don't you dare try to blame me, or push me away." Lorelai took a deep breath, feeling quite winded after all that screaming.

"I'm sorry." Rory whispered. An entire orchestra of violins screeching played in her head. She resisted the urge to cover her ears, rub her temples and retaliate.

"Damn it. Saying sorry isn't going to make things better. You got drunk, you drove, you pushed me" Lorelai held up her bandaged hand for Rory to see the extent of her destruction. "You crashed your car, which I have had to deal with all morning since someone was too disoriented and guilty to clean up her own mess. So whatever happened…You know I don't care anymore. You can deal however you want, but just get over it and come back when you're Rory again. Right now you have your wish. I am no longer your mother." Lorelai didn't regret the words, at the moment. She knew as she said them at a later date she would regret them immensely.

"I'm going to work. I expect you to be gone when I come back." And with that Lorelai stormed out of the room, furiously slammed the door, and stomped extra loud going down the stairs. Tears invaded her eyes as her daughter's devastated face flashed in her mind. Devastated but proud. Rory refused to cry, to let her mother know how much those words hurt. But it was obvious.

"I am no longer your mother" Those words would even destroy achild that had a horrible relationship with their parent. Lorelai could imagine how she would feel like nothing, like millions of pieces of broken porcelain, abandoned and small if her mother had said that to her. She couldn't imagine the pain Rory was in right now.

Although the words stung leaving her mouth and left a nauseating aftertaste in her mouth once she processed them. And as much as she wanted to climb back up those stairs and admit defeat she was just too proud and stubborn. So she left the house and hoped that Rory still regained some common sense and stayed right where she was.

"I am no longer your mother."

"I am no longer your mother." It seemed that no matter how many times she processed the words they still meant the same thing. Lorelai was not her mother anymore. There was nothing to read into. The words on their own were so simple so it didn't surprise Rory that the phrase was just as simple as the individual words.

Rory didn't know what to do. Part of her wanted to stay and explain to Lorelai when she came home that she would always be her mother biologically. But the thought didn't soothe her. It seemed to the younger Gilmore girl that the emotional bond between mother and daughter could be broken just as a ribbon with scissors. So she went downstairs and grabbed her purse. She wanted to call Paris to pick her up but she could predict how that would go.

"Why aren't you driving? Where is your car? Why isn't Lorelai taking you home?" Paris would ask as well as lecture her on early morning wake up calls. Then she would be forced to explain her injuries which would probably leave her walking along side the freeway.

So she opted to take the bus. She had a few bucks to spare and she would have time to think on the bus. Rory didn't want to think, though. So she went into her room and resisted the sudden impulse of anger telling her to destroy the pristine looking room. She found a good long book and grabbed it. She left the crap shack remembering nothing except the six little words that made not looking back okay: "I am no longer your mother."

As she was walking to the bus stop anybody in Stars Hollow could see her. They all knew she had been in an accident but the details of it were either hush -hush or unknown. Most assumed it to be the latter. Among the many eyes watching her was one dreadfully sorry woman drinking coffee in Luke's diner.

Nobody knew how to fix this. It was a problem bigger than the town. Lorelai was feeling depressed and Rory was feeling unloved. Both of their stubborn pride prohibited them from making up.

It was bittersweet.